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Daily Archives: February 17, 2017

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis
Brussels, February 17 (RHC)-- U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has reiterated President Donald Trump’s NATO policy, signaling that allies should pay up if they want U.S. support.
Trump has been a staunch critic of U … Continue reading →

Rome, February 17 (RHC)-- Speaking at the Indigenous Peoples Forum in Rome, Francis said that economic interests need to be met with “the protection of the particular characteristics of Indigenous peoples and their territories.”
The head of the Catholic … Continue reading →

New York, February 17 (RHC)-- The United States experienced a "Day Without Immigrants" as protests spread across the country on Thursday, where immigrants skipped class, work and shopping as a symbolic gesture to show their importance for the … Continue reading →

Washington, February 17 (RHC)-- In the United States, a new report says that the Pentagon is considering a plan to deploy ground troops to Syria. According to CNN, the U.S. has already authorized up to 500 special operations forces in Syria, but the … Continue reading →

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NAPERVILLE, IL, USA, February 17, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- There is more to self-publishing than getting a book printed. If … Continue reading →

Two Cuban women who were deemed “inadmissible” for entry to the United States were placed on a morning flight to Havana on Friday, becoming the first to be deported since … Click to Continue »Continue reading →

… company in the world," Cuban said Friday in an interview … ;Fast Money Halftime Report." Cuban pointed to Amazon's … them competing with Uber," Cuban said.. Cuban has a point. Amazon … be part of the reason Cuban thinks Amazon might eventually compete … Continue reading →

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Carlos Gonzalez bounced into the Rockies’ spring training clubhouse at Salt River Fields on Thursday morning and the room lit up.
There were hugs and fist bumps shared with shortstop Trevor Story and outfielders David Dahl and Raimel … Continue reading →

Juan Juan Almeida, 14 February 2017 — In a memorable address on December 18, 2008 in Salvador de Bahía, Brazil, Raúl Castro referred to what we now know as Operation Carlota, saying, "We told the Angolan people we will only take with us the remains of our dead." But he lied.

The Cuban military mission there did some farming and planted a seed that is only now bearing fruit. Initially, the mission provided support, earning the regime international prestige and increasing its political capital. Witness for example, the vote against the US embargo in the United Nations' General Assembly. Now, General Castro, who is also president of Cuba, is counting on a good harvest: Angolan oil.

Below are the names of thirty people who were flew on KLM or TAAG Angolan Airlines on January 26 of this year from Havana to Luanda with the express purpose of trading medical services for Angolan crude oil.

"In politics, money talks. It has the first and the last word. The medical missions in Venezuela won't be cancelled. Speculation is that the price of oil will rise and, if that happens, the income we receive from that program should also rise," explains an official from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health who, as is always the case, fears government reprisal and prefers to remain anonymous and out of sight.

"The Angola mission," he points out, "is a different sort of thing. They are not sending doctors to be doctors but rather to be instructors. They are going there to teach classes, not to see patients.

"This is predicted to be Cuba's most profitable economic endeavor, more than tourism or remittances from overseas. We are talking about a massive shipment of doctors and other medical personnel as part of an exchange agreement that will guarantee favorable crude oil prices.

"Also, on January 12 a US government program, the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program, was cancelled, easing fears that our physicians will abandon their overseas missions."

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 16 February 2017 – In the photo the couple smiles with one glass of beer in hand, all they were able to obtain after waiting in a long line at a Varadero resort. Nine years after the government allowed Cubans to enter hotels in Cuba (a right previously denied them in what was commonly called 'tourist apartheid'), local customers continue to be discriminated against relative to foreign tourists in the midst of the current boom in tourism.

Eugenia and Guillermo, retirees from the transport sector, are trying to make up for lost time after decades of being unable to enjoy the tourist facilities of their own country. With the remittances sent by their son who emigrated and the profits on a house that they sold a few months ago, they decided to enjoy the natural beauties of the Island and its multiple hotels.

Nevertheless, the so-called smokestack-free industry is experiencing tense times caused by the increase in the number of foreign visitors. At the end of last year, the country reported a record of more than 4 million tourists, good news for the national coffers but which does not, however, represent a better situation for local customers.

Cuba has more than 65,000 hotel rooms and some 17,000 private houses that provide lodging. The tourist boom of recent years tests that infrastructure and the complaints accumulate, especially with regards to the facilities managed by the state or by joint ventures.

Eugenia and Guillermo were among the first customers to purchase an all-inclusive package back in 2008 to spend a weekend in a four-star hotel near the city of Holguin. They recall the experience as excellent. "It was like living a dream and enjoying what, before, only foreigners could have," recalls Guillermo.

However, with the passage of time that initial joy was transformed into discomfort. "The prices have gone up and the quality of the facilities has decreased a lot," comments the retiree. At the end of last year they booked four nights in Pasacaballo, a hotel in Cienfuegos from which they say they left "horrified."

"The all-inclusive was actually rationed," says the wife. "The initial times when you could eat and drink whatever you wanted are now just a memory." Despite having paid for an "open bar," the Cuban guests found themselves with their food and drink rationed.

For the retirees, that regulation of consumption reminded them of "the ration market bodegas," they say. "We wanted to escape reality, to disconnect a few days but it turns out that we found ourselves in the same situation we wanted to escape," Guillermo points out.

In the Pasacaballo restaurant "the main courses are limited," he clarifies. You can only choose one meat, fish or chicken course. On arrival, each guest received a card that allowed them to consume a maximum of 64 beverages, including two liters of rum for the four nights of their stay.

The situation is repeated in other accommodations around the Island. Not even the Royalton Cayo Santa Maria, with five stars, is immune from these types of restrictions. "We had to supervise the domestic guests better because they were cleaning out the hotel," a maid told 14ymedio, on condition of anonymity.

Managed by the Gaviota Tourism Group, a business arm of the Cuban military, special controls are placed on the accommodations of guests from Cuba. "We have lost huge amounts of towels, cups, glasses and cutlery," complains the employee. She blames "the Cubans who come and do not understand how things work in a hotel, they think this is a boarding school in the countryside."

"They want to eat at breakfast what they don't consume in two months at home, so there are many excesses," she says. "While a Canadian will breakfast on an omelet, a Cuban wants to put a hunk of cheese in their pocket, take twenty servings of bread for their room and carry off all the jam they can find."

Maria del Pilar Macías, Director General of Quality and Operations of the Ministry of Tourism, told the official press at the end of last year that the fundamental challenge was to achieve a competitive service "without disregarding international standards" based on "quality and innovation."

In 2014, the influx of domestic tourists to hotels reached 1.2 million guests, an increase of 23% compared to the previous year. On that occasion, the locals spent 147.3 million CUCs in those facilities, according to a report published by the National Office of Statistics and Information of Cuba (ONEI).

The Communist Party has urged in its guidelines "to expand and push the development of national tourism by creating offers that make it possible to take advantage of the infrastructure created in hotels and other recreational and historical tourist attractions."

Eugenia and Guillermo prefer hotels with managers from another country. "They are much more attentive and do not seem to differentiate in the treatment of national tourists." In those run by the state and under the control Gaviota the situation is different. "If you're a national, they leave you with the word in their mouths or with half-service while they run off to look after a foreigner."

The reason for that difference in the treatment lies in tipping. Although most are all-inclusive accommodations, foreign guests "always leave something," comments the maid at the Royalton Cayo Santa Maria. Also, according to the employee, "there have been many incidents with Cuban clients who mistreat workers."

Varadero is the main beach resort on the island and Cubans have become the second largest group of guests in the resort, behind the Canadians. "Cuba's customer today not only goes to standard hotels but also goes to the chain's highest quality hotels," said Narciso Sotolongo, deputy sales director of Meliá Hotels International in Cuba.

The Hotel Group Islazul gets the worst comments among islanders. "I dropped something on the floor and when I looked under the bed I was surprised at the amount of dirt," Guillermo says. The curtains were old, there was no minibar in the room and for several days there was no water in the sink or shower. The manager never showed up for explanations, despite repeated customer complaints.

For the retired couple, the most difficult thing is to accept the price increases. "So before we paid between 70 and 85 Cuban convertible pesos (about the same value in $US) per night with all inclusive; now we can't find it for less than 120 or 140 CUC," the woman complains. An employee of Cubanacán who manages a tourism bureau at the Hotel Vedado denied that there has been an increase in rates.

"We are in the high season and prices are rising every year," she explains to 14ymedio. "Now what is happening is that there is much more demand and the cheaper offers are sold abroad, through the internet and with a credit card." But Eugenia and Guillermo have never connected to the great world-wide-web and only know about cash.

The Student Who Did Not Want To 'Ride With Fidel' / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Excobar

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 16 February 2017 — David Mauri Cardoso, a 24-year-old from Cienfuegos, dreamt of being lawyer but could not successfully pass a test of dishonesty. In appearance it was a test of Spanish, but what was being evaluated was his capacity to fake it.

Along with 30 other young people, who had not been admitted to higher education through the standard entrance exams, David was part of an experiment where workers were enrolled in the first year of Law School at the Carlos Rafael Rodriguez University in Cienfuegos and then assessed on their knowledge of Math, History and Spanish.

The exams were conducted in January and David was one of twenty students who had made it to the end of the previous stage. He finished high school in 2011, and after several failed attempts to enter the university, this seemed to be his last chance.

Everything seemed to be fine until the first week of February, when they summoned him to a Disciplinary Council. His "incorrectness" is described in the Teaching Regulation of Higher Education, where it specifies "it is a very serious error to say or do anything against the Revolutionary Process." The punishment established for this behavior is expulsion from the higher education system in any program throughout the country. On Friday, 10 February, the resolution imposing this punishment was signed.

What, in fact, did David do?

The Spanish test consisted of writing an interpretation of a fragment of the lyrics from the song "Riding with Fidel," which flooded the airwaves after the death of the former Cuban president at the end of November 2016.

David tells 14ymedio how he reacted when he read Question No. 5, which inquired about what he had felt when he honored the ashes of the historic leader of the Revolution. "I realized I was not in a position to fully respond, because that wasn't the case for me. The question was based on an erroneous supposition, because I had not participated in the acts of homage to Fidel Castro, nor did I personally honor him in a spiritual way."

Before the exam, he had prepared himself to identify a simile or a metaphor and felt capable of parsing a text to indicate subordinate or juxtaposed sentences and to call out with precision grammatical mistakes in any verb. But, he said, "To adjust to what they were asking me I responded with total honestly about what this person had meant to me. I was respectful because no one has the right to insult others. I gave my opinion in the framework of good manners."

David recorded in his own handwriting the misery, the destruction of the foundations of society and the injustices. He dared to use the term "authoritarian" to define the established system in his country and at some point, without his pulse trembling, he wrote the word "dictatorship."

"In short, I only offered my personal opinion, which is exactly what they asked of me," he says with the simplicity of one who does not believe he has performed a historic act.

The person in charge of grading the exam must have felt very troubled in the face of such a demonstration of sincerity. David chose not to name names, his Christian ethics precludes it. Nor did he mention the identity of a Spanish-language methodologist at the provincial level who is, at the end of the day, the person who assumed the responsibility of lodging a complaint.

Here, the young student makes a legal argument. "This exam, more than a private text, was a confidential document. Something between the professor and the student that did not have to be sent on under any circumstance."

And therein lies the key, because David did not make statements to foreign television, nor did he publish an opinion piece in the independent press, nor did he go out into the street with a poster, all of which would have been his right.

In the sacred intimacy of the classroom, he offered his opinion, which was what was asked of him. Without his consent, his responses were "elevated" and analyzed under extra-academic rules.

Not a single one of David's classmates was consulted on this sanction because according to the regulation that ordinarily requires a process that does just that, it only applies to "regular" students in the day course.

Now everything is "comments in the hallway" and no one will come to his defense.

David says he does not intend to appeal, although he explains: "I have not resigned formally because I still have time, but I lost interest because, when I think of appealing to the Minister of Higher Education, I wonder who this official answers to and it makes me feel like not even starting the process."

To the question of what he intends to do with his life now, David jokingly replies: "What I was doing: inventing," that is figuring out some way to get by, "like all young people do in Cuba."

14ymedio, Havana, 16 February 2017 — Berta Soler, after meeting this Wednesday with Archbishop of Havana Juan de la Caridad Garcia Rodriguez, said that he has offered his full support to the Ladies in White and that the prelate told her he had asked the Government to sit down and talk to the opposition.

"We ask the Catholic Church to speak out, because whoever is silent supports [the government], and he said to me: 'No Berta, silence is not always support. We have asked the Cuban Government to sit down and talk to the opposition, but what we say is one thing and what they do is another," Soler told 14ymedio.

Soler, the leader of the Ladies in White, and Maria Cristina Labrada, a member of the organization, met with Juan de la Caridad Rodriguez early Wednesday morning and the Archbishop told them that that during the trip from their Lawton headquarters they were "monitored by a large operation made up of the National [Revolutionary] Police and State Security."

According to Soler's account, at the meeting the Archbishop was "very receptive" to the movement's complaints, and they explained to the prelate how they are systematically prevented from reaching the church to attend mass and are victims of abuse such as thefts and fines for "violating the security cordon of the Communist Party of Cuba" when they leave their homes.

"We were able to give him some names and surnames of those who have told us that we could never go to mass at any church," she added.

María Cristina Labrada and Berta Soler received from the hands of the Archbishop "a family Bible with a dedication for each of us," and they gave him "a CD and two reports with evidence of repression" suffered by the women's movement and their families. Both left the door open for a future second meeting.

Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez was named Archbishop of Havana in April of last year after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Jaime Ortega and Alamino who retired, as established by the Code of Canon Law, after having reached the age of 75.

A few weeks after taking office, Garcia Rodríguez generated a bitter controversy in declaring that he did not want Cuba to "have capitalism or anything like that, but that socialism should progress" to go "forward in a just and balanced society and one of brotherhood."

Cuba remains a hot-ticket destination for British travellers as airlines launch new routes and cruise tourism surges. But as the boom continues, confusion has taken hold over whether Britons are able to board the new direct US-Cuba flights.

Passengers flying to the Caribbean island from the UK with Virgin Atlantic (VA) have also experienced difficulties as the airline gets to grips with the ticketing system alongside its new partner, Delta.

Customers have been unable to book flights online by card, or use Air Miles plus money, and they must, instead, call a Cuba phoneline at Virgin Holidays. Miles then need to be converted into vouchers to be discounted against a normal fare.

VA said the issue was temporary, but Rob Miller, director of the UK-based Cuba Solidarity Campaign, accused the airline of discriminating against the communist nation. "Virgin Atlantic must end this discriminatory policy impacting on travellers wanting to use their Air Miles to travel to Cuba," he said. "The US blockade is at the heart of this latest travel dispute.

"We have written to the British Government, and Virgin Atlantic, calling on them to take immediate action to ensure that all passengers are treated fairly whether they are travelling to Cuba or elsewhere."

US and Cuba: a timeline

A VA spokesperson apologised for any inconvenience: "This is just a different way to pay for this route, on a temporary basis. We certainly aren't discriminating against Cuba. However, our technology is currently restricted, meaning we can't take bookings."

The airline launches its second UK route direct to Cuba on April 2, to Juan G Gomez airport. Thomson, too, is adding a route to Cayo Santa Maria from May; Thomas Cook's inclusion of the small set of islands off the coast from 2018, takes its total of Cuban destinations to four.

Last year, 10 US airlines made the first direct flights to the island in more than 50 years, following a thaw in US-Cuba relations. Meanwhile, cruise firms cannot organise itineraries fast enough and the demand for hotel rooms has soared. In December Telegraph Travel reported how tour operators were halting bookings to the island as its infrastructure struggled to cope with demand.

Less positive has been the ambiguity facing British travellers flying to Cuba from the US. Travel for tourism purposes remains illegal for US citizens under a trade embargo. They may only fly direct to Cuba for one of 12 reasons listed by the US Treasury's Cuba sanctions office (OFAC). The same applies to Britons. Since self-certification (an honour system) for travel was permitted last year by the Obama administration, UK travellers, like US citizens, are ticking one of the officially-approved categories (educational) for travel on airline sites.​

Comparison website cheapair.com advises: "Keep receipts for cultural activities to demonstrate your visit was filled with 'authorised' travel activities… keep records of museums visited, local tours you took, cultural activities attended, etc… most of the time, no one will ask."

The Foreign Office advises that travel between the US and Cuba is permitted as long as visitors comply with US law. The OFAC's press office has not yet responded to our inquiries.